Musician with forearm tendinitis

[Dnadz]

Hello All,
I'm a guitarist in music school who would like to give Starting Strength a go. I've had tendinitis for the last two years, and I've gotten pretty good at managing and avoiding flareups (I have a good amount of experience with self massage etc...)
I met with a personal trainer to help me build up to the Starting Strength regimen, since I have to play for at least 5 hours a day, I figured it was best to start with very light weights as to not exacerbate any symptoms. After working with her for a week, I ended up getting inflamed again. I believe it happened from having to write for a long period of time, but also because there was added stress from lifting and playing. Anyway, I'm waiting until the end of the quarter to give it another shot. My questions: Has anyone here ever started this program with preexisting tendinitis, and were you able to make progress? Also, what exercises would be good to build up to being able to lift the bar? Are there any modifications I should consider right off the bat to reduce tension on the forearms? My apologies if any of this information is already out there, after some forum searches I couldn't find the information I'm looking for.
Cheers!

[Satch12879]

There's no need to build up to start the Novice Program. We'd recommend that you ditch the trainer and find a SSC instead. Just do it, there's no prep needed.

Your practice-related tendinitis, from my own guitar-playing experience, is coming from a technique problem somewhere. Moreover, pure death by volume practice will not guarantee mastery. You have to optimize how you learn.

That being said, the five hours you're spending effectively sedentary practicing will not interfere with the novice program. In fact, you may see some improvement in grip strength in particular. The very small muscles and tendons of the hands and arms won't be affected negatively by multi-joint barbell training.

See John Petrucci and George Lynch for examples of lifting guitar players.

[Christopher John]

I agree with everything Satch said. As a music major, I had pretty significant tendonitis issues in both forearms/hands my sophomore and junior years of college. When I finally found lifting, it made a big difference in reducing and eventually eliminating the issue. Do the program as written, and make sure your form is solid.

A few other thoughts:
-Be aware of how much tension you carry in your shoulders and hands both while playing and when not playing, posture at all times, etc. (this falls under the purview of 'good technique').
-Also, with respect to massage, if you haven't discovered this already, the money spots for me were right in the area of the teres major and minor (basically, posterior to the armpit/inferior to lateral border of the scapula). Hitting that with a lacrosse provided almost immediate relief.
-Good technique and getting stronger attack the root of the issue; massage is largely just going to alleviate symptoms, and you can gauge improvement in part by how much massage you're having to do to minimize the pain and dullness of control

[K9dane]

I'm 55 and have had osteoarthritis in my thumbs and tendinitis in wrists for the last 6 years. I've been playing guitar since I was ten and am a gigging weekend warrior. Since I began SS 6 weeks ago, my thumbs and wrists are much improved and I'm able to move my rig at the end of the night in much less pain Vox AC/30.
Get lifting!
I don't use straps for DL and Ive been noticing an improvement in grip strength from chin-ups as well.